civil war manuscripts - American Memory from the Library of Congress

of Gen. William T. Sherman and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surprised
and dismayed the participants, some of whom were
within easy rifle shot of the women. Then there was the abrupt
about-face in the conduct of more than a few Confederate women
at or near the end of the war. In Charleston, S.C., female socialites
somehow managed to transfer much of the anger they
harbored toward the U.S. Navy, which had blockaded the harbor
and bombarded the city and its outlying defenses for four
years, to the Union Army, whose presence had scarcely been
felt. Union naval officers expressed amazement at the welcome
they received at important social functions in Charleston after
the capitulation, particularly with the all-absolving remark as
they were introduced, "He's navy." Nor can the enthusiastic
response of the women of Savannah, Ga., to General Sherman's
conquering army, oft reported in the correspondence of his
soldiers, be ignored.
Materials relating to the contributions of northern women
to the war effort portray many of the same sacrifices made by
their counterparts in the South, especially in the reactions to
the death or crippling of fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons.
But Confederate women could not duplicate the elaborate fairs
and expositions sponsored by benevolent societies in the North
for the benefit of soldiers. Nor could they provide the same
comforts and services available to Federal soldiers enroute to
the war zone at strategically located soldiers' homes. The services
of many northern women as nurses, teachers, missionaries,
and agents, and occasionally as disguised or unofficial soldiers,
are also represented in the collections; however, the records
are surprisingly silent about the ever-present horde of camp
followers and prostitutes on both sides.
Many Civil War soldiers felt compelled to recount their
experiences as prisoners of war through letters, diaries,
memoirs, and reminiscences. Most such records in the Manuscript
Division concern Union soldiers, perhaps because of their
higher numbers and better writing skills. Whatever the reason,
the result is a wealth of information on Confederate military
prisons (particularly Richmond's famous "Libby Hotel" and
Belle Isle, and the notorious stockade prison at Andersonville,
Ga.), prison escapes and attempted escapes, cartels for the
exchange of prisoners, and the morale, diet, diseases, sufferings,
and deaths of prisoners.
The manuscript collections also provide an opportunity for
scholars to reexamine the performance of individual soldiers
and military units in the war. For example, the widespread
belief in an almost universal dread of Col. John S. Mosby's
Partisan Rangers among Union soldiers stationed in northern
Virginia is called into question by the comments of a Federal
cavalryman who likened the nocturnal chases after Mosby's